From the Unknown
by Aiva
Summary: A "Dirty..." Ahem! "Lovely Angels" story. Loose confederacy of planets, recently joined into UG, has a space pirate problems. Nothing serious. When CC decides Kei and Yuri are ones to do this case, things start to get serious. warning, has mature language
1. Prologue. Or how it all get messed up in...

From the Unknown  
  
Prologue.  
  
It was the year 2122.  
Mankind's rapid expansion into space had at last fulfilled its old dream. It had opened many new opportunities, but it also was making the fight for survival more and more dangerous.  
There were chances to become rich in less than a year, by choosing the right cargo, the right place for new expedition, the right planet for colonization. But along with these chances, you could be ruined and often pay for it with your life.  
Space pirates preyed on newly opened ship lanes. Military technologies got a boost they had never had before. New and more powerful weapons, capable of working in vacuum, along with new, lighter and tighter armors became available. Warpdrives hadn't changed much from the first working model built some decades earlier, but conventional within-system engines got upgraded every three to four years.  
United Galactica was a new organization, a response to the lawlessness of the first years of colonization. Its fleet tried to defend its member worlds and establish safety in space, but they couldn't be in all places at once. Expansion progressed faster than they could cope. Anyone who tried to stay within the shelter of the government, soon finds himself trailing behind...  
  
Captain Sidney Gerison knew all this. He was also aware that all their fortunes rode on this one cargo run. They needed to make a profit, or they could say good-bye to their ship.  
Six years ago, some scout had checked the system of the green star Trofar. As soon as he returned, there was a decision to colonize the fourth planet of the system.  
It was a fruit ripe for harvesting. The planet was .95 of Earth normal. The gravity was 1.08, the oxygen was one percent higher. There was no poisonous gases in the atmosphere. Three large continents were located in temperate climatic zones. Also, Trofar IV had all the required mineral deposits; the system had ten other planets, of which six could be easily terraformed, and a couple of large satellites. The place was screaming for inhabitants.  
Trofar IV was also very dangerous, because, at this moment, it was in one of the farthest systems from Earth. There had already been pirate attacks in this system, because its two asteroid belts made perfect hiding places.  
Sydney checked the sensors again. All clear. They had already jumped into the system, and now were carefully picking their way through the inner belt toward Trofar IV.  
  
Ketrin Gerison also sat at her monitors, checking the surrounding space. Trofar was developing rapidly, thanks to its near-perfect biosphere. Any incoming ship always made a scan through the asteroids, hoping for some small, rich rock to tow, and 'Ganymede' was no exception. If they got one now, it could really help them survive.  
She was ready to give up, since the ship was almost through the belt, when one of the sensors beeped. Not believing it, she first double checked its report, before hitting the alarm.  
  
Five minutes later, all eight crew members were on the bridge, shouting, cheering and kissing Ketrin.  
Detailed scans confirmed the first report. It was a small rock, of nearly pure vanadium and iron alloy?. What was more important, it was one fourth the size of 'Ganymede' and they had enough fuel to tow it up to Trofar and put it into synchronous orbit.  
"The net value will cover our maintenance for the rest of our lives," Kira Georgia, the team's financial genius, smiled.  
Cheers again filled the bridge.  
"Not counting the fact that we may get a new ship after this. One with the newest Alderson II engines and twin laser turrets."  
"Enough talk," Sydney ordered. "Kira, Ketrin, Benny - prepare the engines for towing. Sairus, you have the bridge. The rest of the boys and I will go harness our baby."  
  
'Ganymede' cautiously approached the asteroid. It was now on the screens, scanned by magnetic, infrared and gravitational waves. No anomalies, except the valuable contents. No energy exhausts. No signs of a trap. Sairus turned away from the pult(?), to fill a cup of coffee.  
Four clumsy figures in vacuum suits were visible on visual and other screens, placing magnetic anchors on the asteroid's surface. They rarely talked, saving their battery power.  
"Bridge, this is engineering. We are all ready."  
"Good." Sairus Macarna replied, then switched channels. "Captain, engines ready."  
"Good. Tom has some problems with his hydraulics. He is returning. Summon Ketrin to take your place and replace him."  
"Aye, captain." Sairus again switched channels. "Ketrin, come to the bridge. Captain wants me at his side."  
"On my way," the scientist replied.  
  
The attack was sudden and completely unexpected. One moment, there were four figures in vac suits; the next, more than two dozen.  
Smith died without even seeing the attackers.  
Johnson roared and swung his plasma welding apparatus. It wasn't meant to be a weapon, but he caught two attackers in his beam, before lasers chopped him into pieces.  
Tom Lance and Sydney Gerison were near the airlock, returning, when the attack started. They tried to reach it, but the pirates got there at the same time. In the airlock, they started hand-to-hand combat. Fierce but brief.  
Eight pirates closed the outer doors and opened the inner one, hauling the corpse of Sydney and the unconscious Tom, and proceeded to hunt for the rest of the crew.  
Ketrin was the first to be caught. She made the mistake of trying to draw her gun and was shot in the leg.  
Sairus reached engineering in time to join Kira and Benny in their futile attempt to fight back. After the shooting ceased, there were five bodies: three defenders and two attackers.  
  
Ketrin regained consciousness, to feel a stabbing pain. She was shocked to find herself still alive. Pirates were not known for leaving any eyewitnesses.  
Her eyes opened, and she looked - straight into someone's eyes. Then her vision focused, and she saw the face the eyes belonged to.  
Her scream possibly sounded throughout the Milky Way...  
  
Two months later, the space ship "Ganymede" was officially declared missing. It had disappeared along with its crew and cargo, ten thousand colonists from Earth in hibernation, ready to settle at Trofar IV...  
It was one of the first. But not the last.  



	2. Chapter One. Petition. Angels receive th...

  
Part I. 'Petition'  
  
It was the year 2145. Mankind had expanded into space. However, the problems that plagued it on old Earth had followed it to the stars...  
  
Operations director Ayoob checked the list of reports his secretary had placed into memory on his computer desk.  
Two meetings for some social talk with UG officials. The quarterly report on WWWA progress and financial status. A request for speeding up the new recruiting program, due to recent increases in TC losses. A few cases, with the Central Computer assignments already prepared, only needing his signature. One petition...  
This was interesting. The petition was supported by the highest officials of the UG, with confirmation of financial backing.  
"Karl Mickainer, head executive of Trofar VI.  
Due to our latest agreements with United Galactica about Trofar joining UG, we request that the WWWA to solve the so-called 'Mystery of Trofar'. All necessary data follows. UG executives will be funding this venture.  
With best regards - Karl."  
Ayoob whistled when he read the size of the payment. UG really wanted Trofar, that was for sure, and the WWWA wanted the money, money UG was ready to pay. He pressed the intercom button.  
"Send Francis Goulet to me, now."  
  
Francis Goulet looked again at the printout on his desk. He understood the significance of it, he had talked with Ayoob, but the Central Computer... He really didn't like the recommendations the CC was making for this case and its solution.  
  
"SUBJECT - Missing ships in Trofar system and surrounding space.  
SUSPECT - Large-scale pirate operation  
RECOMMEND- One TC team to investigate, two squadrons of UG Space Force cruisers and carrier to eliminate pirate forces.  
CODENAME- KILIKILIANS  
ASSIGN - TEAM 234"  
  
Goulet dropped one tablet of antacid into his mouth and swallowed it with mineral water. Just in case.  
"Sir. The Lovely Angels have arrived. Do you want me to send them in?"  
"Yes."  
  
The doors opened and the most famous team of TCs that ever existed came in. Goulet mentally sighed. They looked so innocent...  
Kei dropped into one of the chairs and stretched. Yuri politely sat down and smiled.  
Goulet looked at the printout again.  
"You have been assigned to the new case."  
Kei yawned.  
"May we see the details?" Yuri asked.  
"The full report has been downloaded to your ship, but here is a summary. Ships are entering and departing the Trofar system. Some of them never reach their destination. More than usual. More than can be explained by natural causes. Trofar government suspects a large-scale pirate operation striking from passive radar covers. You have been chosen to take a look and possibly eliminate the threat."  
"We need to eliminate the pirate fleet?" Yuri asked ironically. "'Angel' is a good ship, better than some frigates, but we prefer not being outnumbered."  
"For the fight, you will have backup. Two squadrons of UG cruisers and the carrier 'Alamo' will support you. Any more questions?"  
Kei yawned again.  
"Some stupid rich boy wrecks his new star-yacht, some poor asteroid miner blows his engines, and you cry 'pirates'."  
Goulet stared at her.  
"Kei has a point. Except for the missing ships, is there any other evidence of pirate operations?"  
"In the last two years, fifty ships have disappeared, including a few Trofar Space Navy cruisers."  
That got their attention.  
"Independents?" Kei showed sudden interest.  
"A few cruisers?" Yuri was agitated.  
"It's all in your mission orders. Finally, be careful. Don't make more of a mess with the Trofarians than is necessary. In your last case..."  
"It wasn't our fault!" both girls cried simultaneously.  
"How could we know that they'd placed three detonators in that nuclear plant!"  
"We disarmed two of them!"  
"Okay, okay. The Central Computer has already cleared you. As always. But I really need you to be careful. The Trofarians are new members of UG and they still have a strong independence party. All they need is one excuse to throw the current government away and elect a new one that will vote for staying independent."  
"We will be careful," Yuri promised.  
  



	3. Chapter two. Departure. Bored girls are ...

  
Part II. 'Departure'  
  
Kei and Yuri were at their apartment at Damocles Tower. Various items of lingerie and dresses were tossed across chairs and beds while they was packing their travel bags.  
"Stupid job," Kei stated in a bored tone. "Are there at least decent warm beaches on Trofar?"  
Yuri smiled. "Yes. I checked."  
"That's one point in favor of this job."  
"I don't wish to be rude, but if we are chasing pirates, we won't have time to visit the beach."  
"Aww... I still say there must be some other explanation... The last pirate we dealt with was some poor SOB in an old miner's ship, preying on other poor SOBs."  
"Let's wait till we see for ourselves," Yuri observed, checking her electronic tools and stack of memory chips. "Don't forget Shasti."  
"Yeah, and Lord Robin. How long till we get in?"   
"Long. A day to clear Elenore, and a week to get into Trofar."  
"Why is that?" Kei complained, as she dithered between a laser pistol and a microplasma gun. In the end, she packed them both.  
"Eleven planets and two asteroid belts."  
"Damn. Got anything for killing time?"  
"Will a D&D set be good enough?"  
"Forget it. Every time I see it now, I remember Tarc," Kei sighed.  
"Really?" Yuri smirked. "You felt differently when Tarc was with us. Then you were willing to play..."  
"Shut up or I'll clobber you."  
"Ohh… I'm so scared," Yuri straightened, a devilish smile on her lips.  
"Wipe that grin off your face!" Kei hissed.  
"I'm terrrifiied..."  
In the next moment, Kei flung her half-packed bag at Yuri.  
She dodged it easily, snatched her own up, and jumped over the bed. At the doors, she turned to face her partner, as they opened automatically. "I will see you on board, dear. After you get packed again." Before Kei could catch up with her, she was off down the corridor, running toward the elevators and laughing.  
"Rrrr…Come back here, you!" Kei's roar echoed after her.  
  
A small red-painted starship was departing from Elenore. Anyone who happened to be close enough could read Lovely Angels in golden letters on its aft. Below them, there was also a large black area where the paint had been burnt off.   
Inside the ship, emotions were at a boil.  
"When I get my hands on the slimeball who painted that on our ship..." Kei cursed.  
"Calm down."  
"No! What a buster!!"  
"It wasn't necessary to burn it off with a hand laser."  
"The hell it wasn't! Not for a nanosecond will I fly under the name 'Dirty Pair'!!"  
"We could have had it painted over as soon as we got to the UG space factory."  
"Think of all those looks and wisecracks we'd get! No way! I'm gonna dredge that creep up from hell when we get back!!!" Kei fumed.  
Yuri sighed. While she'd been waiting for Kei, she had already released a tracking program into the spaceport's computer. It would monitor all communications and, by their return, might possibly give them the name of the offender. She too was angry, but she would be ready to forgive if it turned out to be some good-looking boy. Kei was another story.  
  
After four hours, Kei calmed down, mostly because she didn't have anything to do, while Yuri was working with the ship's computer. And the stop at the Gibraltar space dock was very short - too short to get on a shuttle and jump back to planetary port...  
"How much longer?" Kei asked from her bed in a chamber aft.  
"Another eighteen hours."  
"I'm bored..."  
"Find some job to do," Yuri raised her head from the screen. "Perchance, you could run a diagnostic on Angel's weapons."  
"Already done."  
"Then go read a book..."  
Kei yawned her response to that suggestion.  
Yuri heaved a sigh and returned to her program.  
"What are you doing?" Kei asked, suddenly slipping up behind her.  
"Some of the latest hacker stuff. Got this from Mary Grinsted."  
"The TC who arrested that hacker team last week?"  
Yuri nodded.  
"Wasn't all their stuff classified 'top secret' and locked away?"  
Another nod.  
"Got anything interesting?"  
"This is an AI program that's capable of persuading ordinary computers that it's a human using a brain-link, rather than that it's a piece of software."  
"And what's so great about that?"  
Now it was Yuri's turn to raise her eyebrows.  
Kei groaned. "Okay, okay. I don't understand and I don't care. How much longer..."  
"Seventeen hours, forty-nine minutes."  
"Gawwd, I'm so bored..."  
  
It was a nuisance, the long distances that needed to be traveled using ordinary drives in order to get clear of the gravity wells of planets and stars, before hyperjump could be engaged safely. And it needed to be done at slower-than-light speeds.  
There were already experimental devices that allowed the gravity well effect to be nullified, but they were still in development and the few tests that had been made had ended in disasters. The murders of a few of the major specialists at the hands of criminals who wanted such devices for themselves didn't aid progress either.  
  
Kei awoke and stretched. They were still in the Elenore system, but its sun was now only a small star on the screen, one like so many others.  
She looked over at her partner's place. It was messy, but currently empty.  
"Yuri!"  
"I'm at the control station."  
Kei stood up, tossed a short halat? over her top, and walked out from the sleeping chamber.  
Yuri was linked into Angel's main computer.  
"How much longer?"  
"Three hours."  
"Ugh, another three damn boring hours... Want to do some combat sparring?" Kei asked lazily, looking through the windows out at the stars.  
"You'll break something." Yuri replied absently, concentrating on her task.  
"You saying I'm clumsy?" Kei's gaze snapped over to her.  
"I mean there's no room for it."  
"You're just afraid of me."  
"Aha!"  
"What?" Kei asked.  
"Remember what Goulet told us at the briefing?"  
"About what?"  
"What were you doing there, Kei?" Yuri turned to her partner. "Daydreaming about that boy you picked up at Sammy's Bar last week?"  
"And if I was? You left by yourself!"  
Yuri's look turned colder.  
"You..."  
"What were you starting to say about the briefing?" Kei quickly changed the subject.  
"The Trofarians are concealing something about their mystery."  
"Maybe they themselves are the mystery?"  
"If so, they're crazy to ask us to investigate it. I've pulled up the WWWA archive files about all cases of missing ships in that region. The first reports go as far back as twenty years."  
"What?" Kei leaned on her partner's shoulder. Yuri gave a command and data started scrolling along a screen.  
"They've hushed this up for twenty years?"  
"Seems so."  
"I think I'm gonna need the biggest gun I can carry to sweep that place clean. Jesus Christ, twenty years! Wait a sec - it says there that the colony itself was only founded twenty-nine years ago!"  
"Right. Guess what the first ship to go missing was?"  
Kei blanched.  
"You mean... a colonist transport?" she whispered. "That's... They had... several thousand people on board... That's mass murder..."  
"Ten thousand, it was a small one. But that's not the main item of interest." Yuri added calmly. "The report was deleted from UG databases. When I compared their listing with the WWWA's, I found a few other missing reports. It's fortunate that "C.C." was duplicating everything."  
  
Kei was washed and refreshed when she returned to the bridge. Yuri was still at the computer.  
"Jump in 50 minutes" appeared on one of the screens. As Kei watched, it changed to "Jump in 49 minutes".  
"How much info have you dug up?" Kei asked.  
"Want to hear the total so far?" Yuri got to her feet, pulling the link from the socket behind her ear.  
"Over a hundred?"  
"So far, two hundred eighty-seven ships. And I haven't finished yet."  
Kei opened her mouth, then closed it.  
"I don't get it. How they can hide all that?!"  
"Most of the reports were deleted from the databanks. Without them, the figures were much less alarming. On the reports that remained, 'natural' explanations were appended. Outbursts of stellar activity back when that cargo ship had the old-style screens. Errors in navigation. And so on."  
"This is starting to stink worse and worse."  
"Hmph, speaking of smells, I think I'd better get to the shower. Keep an eye on the bridge, though I doubt anything will happen before we reach Trofar."  
Yuri exited, leaving Kei alone with her worries.  
The line on the screen read "Jump in 45 minutes".  
  



	4. Chapter three. Arrival. And forget about...

  
Part III. 'Arrival'  
  
In a blaze of white light, a ship returned from that strange realm through which it traveled as it covered vast distances through hyperspace. It was painted green and brown with the name Wrath of God on its stern. The onboard computer immediately started to scan the surrounding sky for navigational references.  
"Trofar system." it concluded after a few seconds.  
Kei smiled, satisfied.  
"I did it right this time!" she said proudly. "I set in all the parameters all by myself and we arrived right where we needed to be."  
Yuri checked her auxiliary screens and sighed.  
"Yes, we've arrived. Only a few billion miles further out-system than I would have liked," she said coldly.  
Kei gulped.  
"Let's see... I think, I will jump to Ursa A and back. It will cost us extra fuel, but it will save three weeks of travel under light-speed."  
Kei remained silent the whole time while Yuri was inserting new data into the computer. With a flash, the Wrath was gone.  
  
In a flare of light, the Wrath of God leapt from 'between-space'. This time, the computer was much quicker to determine that they have arrived in the Trofar system.  
Kei still was in melancholy. Yuri didn't disturb her while she oriented the ship toward their destination: Trofar IV. That done, she returned to the task of checking the details of the various catastrophes that haunted ships in this system.  
About an hour later, Kei touched her shoulder.  
"I'm sorry," she said slowly. "I shouldn't have done that. It just seemed like a good idea to do the calculations myself."  
Yuri smiled gently and hugged Kei.  
"Why don't you join me in sorting through this data?"  
Kei nodded, even though that idea didn't seem so good. But Yuri was already pushing her toward the second seat and handing her a data link. Kei plugged it in.  
"I will handle technical faults, you can deal with collisions." Yuri issued quick instructions. "Look for cases without survivors."  
  
Two days later, they had covered all the accidents described in the UG, WWWA, Space Exploration Institute, and some other databases. The total loss of ships that may have been victims of pirates was possibly as many as three hundred fifty, with two thirds of the reports having been tampered, forged or edited. Both girls stretched in their seats and looked over at one another.  
"I suspect the two squadrons and carrier will be a bit inadequate to deal with an operation of this scale," Yuri said.  
  
"Wrath of God calling station Tyre!" Yuri was speaking into the commlink. "We request a landing."   
Kei hopped over the back of her seat, with one hand already powering up the weapons station as she strapped on her safety harness. Yuri raised an eyebrow.  
"Just in case they get any funny ideas," Kei grinned, noticing her partner's look. After their prolonged work on databases, she was hankering for some combat.  
"They aren't such fools," Yuri whispered back.  
Comm crackled a few times.  
"Station Tyre here. We read you, Wrath of God. Will you be docking in orbit or making planetfall?" a young voice asked. The video still hadn't come on.  
"We will be landing, Tyre," Yuri replied.  
"Damn piece o' crap..." a faint curse was heard, then an image came up on video. The man on-screen lowered his fist and shrugged his shoulders in apology. "We have two spaceports ready to accept you. Would you prefer Otama or Derry?"  
"What's the difference?" Yuri smiled.  
The man smiled back. "Otama is near the capital, but they'll rip three skins off you for the same work that Derry will only take two."  
"We'll take Otama," Yuri declared.  
"One sec..." the man turned away from screen. "Okay, you've got it. Prepare to receive navigational data."  
Yuri turned on the computer input. There was a short whine and all the information was sent to their onboard computer.  
"Happy landing. By the way, my name's Jamie and my week's shift ends tomorrow. If you are free, may I ask you on a small walk then?"  
Jamie looked Yuri straight in the eye. Yuri felt charmed, as men's gazes were more usually aimed somewhere below.  
"I will consider it," Yuri replied politely. "Where should I leave a message if I accept?"  
"I'll be leaving the spaceport at 12:40 tomorrow. I'll wait for you at exit eleven."  
"Agreed. Wrath out."  
  
"Another lech," Kei stated, retracting the weapons for atmospheric entry.  
"Hmph! You're just jealous because he asked me, and not you," Yuri poked out her tongue while checking the received data for any hidden additions. Finding none, she forwarded them to the computer, and Wrath of God began its descent.  
"When he sees us both together, he'll pick me," Kei retorted.  
"Why bother yourself about him? He's only 'another lech'." Yuri smiled.  
Far to port, they left a small white speck behind as station Tyre emerged into Trofar's rays. Nearby could be seen the largest of Trofar IV's moons. To starboard, both girls now had a good look of the planet from space. It seemed so peaceful: two large continents and six huge islands, all covered in lush green, with only a few spots of light visible on the night side.  
"This place could just become a top-class resort planet," Kei said softly.  
"Perhaps… if they don't spoil it with their industries."  
  
Otama City, capital of the fourth planet in the Trofar system, was growing. Ten years old, it was only a 'fresh out of diapers' age for a city.  
In any case, for a city to have eight hundred thousand citizens on a planet where the total population was less than five million was hardly remarkable. Accustomed to overcrowded Earth, colonists usually imitated its building style at their new homes. Back in the UG, Kei and Yuri had seen planets where ninety-five percent of the inhabitants were crowded into one huge megalopolis.  
In fact, the dispersion of cities on Trofar IV would become a different problem they would encounter if it weren't dealt with soon. Over half of the inhabitants, if the reports UG had supplied them could be relied upon, were living outside of cities in single houses, farms and small villages all over the planet.  
  
"What's up, partner?"  
"Nothing," Yuri stared out a window.  
"I'm not blind. What's bugging you?"  
"You'll just laugh, Kei. But that bird that fell dead to the ground when we left the spaceport... It's an ill omen..."  
"Is that all?" Kei gave an amused huff of relief. "You always did have a soft spot for all these birds, flowers, and butterflies. Why don't you quit your job and join the Greens? I can just see you waving placards saying 'Stop terraforming!', 'Nature - Yes! Factories - No!'"  
  
The cab driver said nothing, concentrating on his driving while letting his two passengers argue. Many had sat behind him and talked. Some interesting secrets had even been spat out in drunken bravado. He knew how to hold his tongue. These two, though, he couldn't place in any familiar category. They stood out from the crowd, that was for sure.  
The car turned off from the road and pulled up to a place that looked more like an exhibit in an architectural museum than a useful structure.  
"Hilton Hotel, ladies." he said, noticing their looks. Newcomers, he at last realized. Definitely newcomers from some high-tech world, maybe even from the Union.  
"Are you sure?" the redhead asked.  
"Yes. You gave me the address, I drove you to it."  
"Let's check it out," said the brunette as she climbed out.  
  
"What's all this?" Kei asked, no, demanded from the man behind the registration desk.  
"It's the Hilton Hotel, Ms. ..."  
"Kate Sinclair."  
"... Ms. Kate. Yes, you have ordered a double room."  
"I mean, what is all this stuff?" Kei pointed at the wooden staircase, French doors, and a small marble fountain at the far end of the hall.   
"Ah! It was all the idea of the previous owner. He decided to build a copy of a hotel from back on old Earth. Before overpopulation and expansion." The clerk answered with visible relief.  
"Ohh-kay… I'll take the keys."  
"And your husband? Will he be arriving later?"  
Only Yuri's intervention saved the poor clerk from a close-up view of Kei's boot -- from the underside.  
  
"How the hell was I supposed to know?" Kei growled as they walked down the corridor. "Where's it say that this hotel, the one Hilton on the whole damn planet, is for newlyweds!"  
"If I hadn't stopped you, we'd have been in serious trouble right now!"  
"My husband!? Urrr…did you see how he looked at us when I said you were with me?"  
"Yes, and I can imagine why."  
Kei stopped dead, her eyes widening. "I'll beat that idea out of his skull!" she hissed.  
"Calm down, you're attracting attention."  
"Of all the goddam perverted--"  
"Kei."  
"What?"  
"The keys. We're at the room."  
  
"Okay, no more bugs." Kei declared as she climbed out from under the bed. "Only good thing I can say, at least there's no dust down here."  
Yuri nodded, placing the mirror back on the bathroom wall. It turned out to be quite ordinary.  
Usually they would do such work with their electronic devices, but being planetside undercover meant no high-tech stuff other than whatever they could get through Customs. Their detectors, light as they were, exceeded the limit.  
For better or worse, they only found one bug. That one was in the main room, poorly disguised as a nail supporting a painting. Yuri pulled out her set of microelectronic instruments from the secret compartment in her desktop case and quickly locked the bug onto itself.  
"Got a plan?"  
"Yes. Sooner or later, we will need to contact the high-level officials. We were ordered to do that upon arrival. Our identity change was only to prevent them from throwing us out on arrival, 'due our bad reputation', as that punk in Covert Ops put it," Yuri stated.  
"You think the officials might be involved?"  
"With an operation as large and sustained as this one is, I'm certain of it. There's no way someone could pull something like this behind their backs for so long. I know there's no limit to human stupidity, but this is too much. If we are wrong about this, we can always apologize."  
"Okay, so we're on our own. Y'know, it's a real pain in the butt that they have limitations on the weapons we can carry."   
"On many of UG worlds, you can't carry weapons at all. That blaster-launcher of yours really shocked that lady in Customs. 'You are wearing this?'" Yuri parodied in a small, quavering voice.  
Kei sighed, glancing at the tiny needle gun she held now. The rest of her arsenal had to stay aboard the ship.  
"Anyway, I have a meeting with Jamie in the morning. Perhaps, being in a position like his, he knows something about what's going on around here, What about you?"  
"Well, since you're going to be relaxing, someone'll have to get some work done. I'll check the bars around the spaceport. Maybe I'll turn up something."  
"Sounds fine," Yuri smirked. "For tonight, let's check out the hotel restaurant..."  
  
The evening was passing breezily.  
Kei was slow-dancing with an attractive boy she had snatched right out from under Yuri's nose. Yuri didn't mind this time: the fellow she was talking with was also good-looking. And single. Not that a gold ring on a finger ever stopped Kei from going after what she wanted.  
"You really are from the Union?"  
"Union?" Yuri returned to the conversation.  
"United Galactica, excuse me. We usually just call it 'the Union'. You're really from there?"  
"Yes. What's so exciting about that?"  
"Well, you know, we've had almost no contact with the Union for around ten years. The ships come and go, the colonists sometimes arrive, but immigration to the base worlds has practically stopped."  
"Interesting. I can say nearly the same about your home world," Yuri smiled. "Until this month, I didn't even know it existed. And I've seen many planets."  
"Yes. But I have visited only a couple dozen... and they all look pretty much alike."  
"Are you a merchant?"  
"No," he said, taking two champagne glasses from a steward's platter and offering one to her. "I'm a captain. I'm working for one of Twinmoon's wine-makers."  
Yuri felt great. It wasn't often that she could work while having such a simple, good time.  
"Isn't it dangerous to run cargoes through here?" she asked in a casual tone. "In the UG, space pirates sometimes show up. I hear that one was hunted down not half a year ago."  
"Ahh. No, not at all. You're safe enough if you have a strong ship."  
"And yours is strong?"  
"Not very. But we can show some teeth to anyone who tries to stop us."  
"I'm glad to hear that."  
"And you? If I may judge from your interest, you're in a similar line of work. Am I right?"  
"Yes. Only I have my own ship. I'm an independent."  
"Oh, that's very nice. I hope to get enough money together to start my own business in a year or two."  
"That sounds wonderful. Maybe we'll meet in the future."  
"I hope it won't be by competing for the same job."  
The music ended, then took up a slightly faster dance tempo. The man set their glasses down on a passing waiter's plate and turned to her.   
"May I ask you for this dance?" he inquired.  
Yuri agreed.  
  



	5. Chapter Four. Dates. With opposite sex a...

Part IV. 'Dates'  
  
Yuri woke up and stretched lazily. It had been such a good dream. It was too bad that Simon couldn't stay the night at the hotel, but needed to return to his ship... She had hinted that she could go with him, but either he didn't get it or he'd declined her offer. Yuri hoped the former was the case.  
Rolling over, she stood up with a sigh and walked to the bathroom. The day was going to be a hard one for her. Maybe Jamie would be more promising than Simon was late night...  
Kei was already up and soon met her as they descended for breakfast. Yuri was slightly annoyed when the receptionist hinted that breakfast up in the room would cost more. It wasn't their money they was spending and, eventually, someone would require an expense report... Better not to look for trouble.  
They were now dressed in civilian clothing, their uniforms well hidden beneath them.  
  
Yuri waited at the exit. At half past one, there was a report of a shuttle landing, and soon she noticed Jamie running toward her.  
They met and only then did she notice he was fully a head taller than she. Jamie swept her up and spun her around before giving her a peck on the cheek and releasing her.  
Yuri was smiling, despite the fact that, for a moment, she considered slugging him. He was overacting and in a peculiar way. And he looked awfully tidy for someone who had just come straight off a shuttle.  
  
Kei was bored, always a dangerous situation. She had checked two bars so far, and in each one, she'd had to reject offers to 'have a time you'll never forget'. This was the third one now, but the scenario was unfolding about the same way.  
Kei sampled an offered drink. Not bad: she'd certainly had worse. Besides, this was a freebie. A group of six men and women was throwing a party, and they were spending money left and right. Kei took a slow pull on her drink through a straw and eavesdropped on the conversations.  
There were many. About the taxes and government. About the police and the smugglers. Then she heard one that got her attention.  
"... we met 'em at Sigma II. Appeared outta nowhere, bang! Lucky I was in the last stage of hyperjump, so I just yanked the throttle and was outta there. I'll bet that had them starin' with their jaws hangin'…"  
"Good work, German. But Rich wasn't so lucky..."  
"Yeah..."  
Kei glanced over at the speaker, a small man with a fresh scar on the left side of his face. She couldn't have said, observing from such a distance,. what might have caused it. But she thought he might bear watching.  
A few minutes later, German stood up and, with slightly swaying steps, left the bar. Kei dropped a few credits on the bar and followed. Things looked like they might start getting interesting.  
  
Yuri maintained a fixed smile at Jamie, while silently cursing to herself. What century were these people living in? Jamie was playing the same game as Simon last night: a cautious approach, a few promises and veiled hints, but nothing more. All right, fine -- if not pleasure, then at least she'd get some information out of him.  
"You're always clearing ships at Tyre?"  
Jamie smiled, showing a row of snow-white teeth. "Me and three hundred ninety-nine others."  
"That many?" Yuri asked, not quite believing the figure.  
"Five shifts, eighty people on each."  
Yuri let the subject drift away, but something didn't jibe. That many personnel might be needed at a huge resupply and resort station, like the ones around Earth or other core UG worlds, but hardly at a simple docking station for space-only ships, which Tyre certainly was.  
"Sometimes I wish there were more, especially when traffic gets heavy..."   
"Isn't it boring to sit around and wait, seeing the same faces day after day?"  
"It is... but you don't mind so much after a while. There, you are one on one with the Universe... the silence... the stars... Have you ever noticed how they look back at us? I often hope that, someday, we will meet another sentient race… and then we won't be alone anymore..."  
A philosopher, Yuri groaned inwardly. I'm having a date with a freaking philosopher. If Kei ever finds out...*  
But she remained patiently in her seat, nursing a low-alcohol drink and carefully questioning Jamie. At least he was good for free information...  
  
Kei bailed out of the car, followed by a hail of curses. She turned and shouted back at the driver, who was also leaping from the limo.  
"I said I'd be back with the money!" Kei growled.  
"Like hell! No way are you going anywhere!"  
The driver hurtled around the car and tried to snag Kei's hand. He regretted it immediately as she twisted his hand and slammed him against the car doors. She was about to declare a truce, when the driver's boot caught her under the knee, making her right leg numb in an instant. Her hold weakened and the man twisted free.  
"You'll pay for this, all right," he promised, wiping blood from his cut lip. "I'll take the fare out of your hide!"  
Kei quickly executed a standard breathing exercise to calm her nerves. Who'd have known the cabbie would turn out to be a retired bodyguard?  
"Listen, I'll get the money..." she said in a final attempt to end this without broken bones.  
The driver threw a punch at her face.  
"Oh-kay, I tried..."  
Kei let her academy training take over from there.  
  
She entered the hotel reception area, clutching a kerchief to her nose. That guy had been a good fighter, she had to admit. If it hadn't been for his age...  
"Excuse me, miss, aren't you feeling well?"  
"Keys. Room 208."  
The receptionist stared at Kei and, without another word, handed her the set of keys.  
"Lousy, outdated piece of…," Kei fumed as she stalked off toward the offending staircase.  
  
As the girl disappeared around the bend of the stairs, the receptionist got up enough courage to leave his post to peer outside. What he saw made him feel glad he hadn't pressed her with any questions. The poor cab driver had managed to get to his feet, but was having some problems with walking around his car.  
  
When she heard the door latch retract, Yuri raised her head from the pillows.  
"Kei?" she asked.  
"Yea..." came a rather nasal reply.  
"Are you all right, Kei?" Yuri became concerned, stood up, and pulled a light robe around her shoulders as she entered the common room.  
"No..." Kei sniffed, testing the integrity of her nose. "I am not alright!"  
"What happened?"  
"Enough of a beating for three cases... Ughhh..." Kei sulked. "That cab driver just capped off the day!"  
"Did you run into some muggers?" Yuri asked, while filling an icepack from the fridge.  
"Stupid barfight," Kei responded, falling into a chair after satisfying herself that her nose was still intact.  
"Here." Yuri returned, handing her the pack. "So tell me what happened."  
"Well, while you were having your little tete-a-tete with Jamie, I was walking my legs off making the rounds of the bars around the spaceport. And getting invitations from all kinds of guys." That was stretching the truth a bit: there had only been three invitations, all from former UG fleet personnel -- but Yuri didn't need to know that. "Things were going O.K., till one lech decided to go from words to deeds. I showed him the error of his ways, but he had a few of his pals along, and they decided I'd wronged their buddy. Next thing I knew, there was a total ruckus..." Kei paused to check her nose again.  
"Then what?"  
"After I took care of the third bozo, the cops showed up. Crashed through the doors like stormtroopers and rounded up everybody. They hauled the wounded off to some hospital and the rest of us to the precinct house."  
"Kei in her element..." Yuri murmured.  
"Huh, it gets worse. They nabbed me too: one creep accused me of starting the fight. They took me through the full routine..."  
Yuri glared at her partner.  
"What's 'the whole routine'?" she asked, suddenly serious.  
"Fingerprints, retina scans, drug tests, blood samples..."  
"Yaaah… Kei, you idiot!" Yuri screamed. "Do you realize what you've done?"  
"C'mon, we're new here. They're not gonna find any..." Kei's voice trailed off abruptly. "Oh shit! You mean…?"  
Yuri had already dashed back to her room, frantically setting up her desktop and tying into the planetary information network.  
"This planet's part of UG now, so they might query the central databases! What do you imagine they'll say when they learn our real identities? 'Top WWWA agents, operating undercover on recently independent world, start bar brawl!' The media will have a field day!"   
"D'you really think they'll ask about me? It was just a minor donnybrook..." Kei appeared in the doorway, still holding the icebag to her nose.  
"Maybe not, but who can say? I'm not taking the chance. Kei, why didn't you call me as soon as you were released?"  
"In the middle of that riot, some bastard cleaned out my purse..."  
Yuri couldn't help laughing, despite the seriousness of the situation.  
  
"Come on, come on..." Yuri was tapping her fingers on the desktop, waiting for communications to become established. "What police precinct was it?"  
"You think I asked?" Kei muttered. "I can only remember the address. And I only know that because one of the cops called a cab for me. Luckily, the sergeant let 'im."  
"Okay, I'm logging in."  
Yuri closed her eyes, shutting off any outside interference. She had tested Trofar's defenses and found them tough; now she'd need to take them on in a frontal assault.  
  
Virtual reality. A term that describes something without saying anything. Each system has its own form, its own laws. There is much in common among them, but the differences can only be found out the hard way.  
Yuri slowly traveled around traps set up for people doing pretty much what she was attempting. Fortunately, her hacking software had gotten through customs, so she was protected now. There were brain-fryers here: not many, but still… Others were "smart-traps" for computerized hackers, who relied more on their electronic augmentations than their own minds.  
Her first reaction was wonderment. The planetary infosphere here was so weak, much as it would have been elsewhere about a hundred years ago. Certainly far too limited for a planet with five million citizens and one which boasted of being a central planet for the entire sector.  
Yuri passed a transport control system and noticed a hole that had been discovered and patched in all UG systems two years ago. She stopped to apply a similar patch here from her own resources; otherwise, it stood as an invitation to some later hacker to cause mischief. She made a mental note to herself to warn the WWWA econ corps about the inferior status of Trofar's computer networks. Now that it was joining UG, the sharks would arrive by the hundreds: better to be prepared than to suffer the consequences of that.  
The police databanks was better protected, but not well enough to stop her from breaking in. Her desktop hacked the passwords without even slowing down. The guardian routine showed some intelligence, but Yuri managed to replace its checklist with one she supplied herself as a top-level user: it simply stepped aside. Next were request tracers. It was a simple matter for her to toss them fake addresses, like so many bones to dogs. The whole business was so easy that she nearly ignored something very sophisticated that wasn't fooled with her standard tricks.  
Yuri stopped again. This one was an algorithm she'd never encountered. Very well. With a feeling of admiration, she dodged around it and substituted the warnings into the delivery subroutines. If it hadn't been for the weakness of the other security systems, this one might have given her some problems. She copied its code to the desktop memory for later study and continued on her way.  
One thing could be said for the Trofarian police: they worked fast. All the data concerning the barfight was already entered, along with material on all apprehended participants. Kei included.  
Yuri quickly read through the list and made a copy of that to her desktop as well. After experiencing the politeness of Jamie and Simon, the rudeness of the assault on Kei seemed atypical. She understood soon enough; three of those listed as "perpetrators" were an engineer and two guards from a UG transport. What was one to think...  
Next to their names and that of 'Kate Sinclair' was a note: "requested check of identity data from UG databanks". Yuri cursed the speed of communications.  
The trails of the data queries were hard to follow. Yuri spotted a few replies from local databases -- nothing from them, of course. Then there was a response from UG. The closest sector central planet had a similar day/night cycle to Trofar's and their reply was already in. Yuri copied that too, as it contained data about two of the three assailants. She held up a reply about 'Kate Sinclair', in order to have time to make up a phony later, if she could manage to block the arrival of the actual replies.  
Then Yuri withdrew from the police banks and hacked into the communication center. The planetary FTL communications block was UG standard issue: she quickly added a few more orders to it. Now, in addition to its usual functions, it would divert to her all outgoing messages with the keywords 'Kei', 'Yuri', 'Kate Sinclair', 'Ilona Magiani', 'Lovely Angels', and (ahem) 'Dirty Pair'. In the case of that last one, she requested additional information processing to find out the sender's address and the message route. All incoming messages with the same keys would be "delayed" until she could review them before allowing them to proceed on their way.  
With all that set up, Yuri returned to the police databank and started assembling a false report on 'Kate Sinclair', citizen of UG, notified of exceeding posted speed limits a few times and of not paying her taxes once. She looked over the data a final time before feeding it to the databank.  
So... she was done... Yuri checked once more for subtle traps and, finding none, relaxed as she logged out.  
  
Yuri blinked, momentarily blinded by the room lights. "Got carried away," she breathed, pressing her hands against her temples and slowly pulling out the interface cable from the socket behind her left ear, hidden by her hair.   
"Yuri?"   
Kei was leaning over her, a strange mix of concern and sorrow on her face.  
"It's O.K. now. I've set up fake replies and a trap for real ones, in case anyone bothers to send them. We are safe for a time."  
"Yuri, I'm really sorry..."  
The vidphone chose that moment to chime melodically.  
"I got it."  
Kei pressed a button. On the screen appeared the face of the hotel receptionist.  
"I'm sorry to disturb you, but the police are down here in the lobby, together with a badly beaten man. He declares that you need pay him..." the receptionist said timorously.  
"Kei?" Yuri stared at her partner.  
Kei groaned in despair.  
  



End file.
